Big names caught the eyes of Healthcare IT News’ readers this year, as they identified the top stories of 2008.

The hottest story of the year was the long anticipated merger between Allscripts and Misys. This deal affected an estimated 150,000 U.S. physicians and another 700 hospitals.

“This agreement changes the landscape in healthcare information technology by creating a single company that will serve roughly 150,000 physicians with our portfolio of electronic health record, practice management and other software solutions,” said Allscripts CEO Glen Tullman, who leads the combined company. Tullman and Mike Lawrie, chief executive of Misys plc and executive chairman of the new Allscripts, both proclaimed the deal as a shot in the arm for the U.S. healthcare industry.

The story that grabbed second place detailed Google’s plans to unveil more information on its health initiative to liberate data from provider and payer databases and follow the patient. Google Health went public in June with the details of its platform for storing and managing personal medical data. Many supporters of the personal health record see it as a tool to empower patients to manage their own health, but there are still critics who have concerns over privacy.

 “I think it will shift the emphasis from solely being on the provider to include the consumer,” said Deborah Hagar, of the Coalition for Quality Affordable Health Care.

“It’s the future – not as fast as the

engineers and entrepreneurs might want/like; but Google has shown itself to be very smart and it will persist at it,” said Steven J. Davidson, MD, Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn, N.Y.

Google and Allscripts were linked in September 2008 when Allscripts integrated its e-prescribing solution with Google Health in order to offer physicians a new means of sharing patient medication history.

2008

1.    Leapfrog Group picks top hospitals, raises patient-safety bar.
2.    Twelve communities picked for Medicare EHR demo.
3.    The show will go on - without Cerner.
4.    Thomson Healthcare study names top 100 hospitals on patient safety.
5.    Google unveils more information on health initiative.
6.    Allscripts, Misys announce merger.
7.    CMS releases final e-prescribing standards.
8.    Troubled United Healthcare gets thumbs down from hospital execs.
9.    Experts say Medicare billing crackdown could prove costly for providers.
10.  Top five healthcare IT blunders.